An Invaluable Lesson
by katilara
Summary: L teaches his lessons in an unconventional manner. RaitoxL


**A/N:** My first Death Note fic of any length. I fully blame this one on the fact that I was listening to Alkaline Trio and reading the _Yellow_ manga on the way to work. (Yeah, I read at stop lights. /shifty eyes) This was one of those weird ones that just came out in one piece in a linear fashion, which never happens. And at work nonetheless. Anyone need a slash-addled brain for cheap?

* * *

That it had happened once before was bad enough, but Raito was damned sure that it wasn't going to happen again. Not even now when he was awake in the middle of the night and painfully hard from a dream about Misa. Not that Misa meant anything to him in particular, but she was the only girl he'd seen in weeks so to him it was only natural that she would be the one doing _those things_ in his dreams. He needed to catch Kira now, if not to prove himself, then to get out of these goddamned handcuffs and get laid. For real this time. 

L was catnapping, perched across from Raito's pillow. His head rested against the wall above the headboard and his fingers were still on the keyboard of his laptop. Raito eyed the bathroom door and wondered if there was enough of a lead to be able to make it inside without waking L. He pushed the comforter down with his free hand to put off moving the arm in the chain till the last moment. The metal clinked softly when he finally did, and rustled as he padded slowly across the room. The bathroom seemed to get farther and farther away as he stared at the door in the soft glow from the laptop's screen.

When he reached the door, he pulled it open and took a step inside. The chain went taught. He looked over his shoulder at L. The detective didn't seem to be awake, but Raito had learned early on that what L seemed to be was of little consequence. He shrugged to himself and pulled the door to around the chain. His trapped arm stretched so that his fingertips brushed the door frame as he leaned back against the wall and lowered his other hand into his pajama pants in the dark. He couldn't turn the light on; there was too much risk of drawing attention. But maybe it was better this way. This way he could pretend it was all still a dream.

He started to stroke himself inside of his pajama pants, but soon became frustrated with the cloth that restrained his movement. He pushed them clumsily down his hips with his free hand and then returned to frantically working his cock. He wanted to finish quickly, because he'd be damned if he would be caught. He smiled wryly as the familiar pressure built in the base of his stomach. Maybe he was damned anyway. He tried every sure fire thing he'd ever done to himself or had someone else do to him, but nothing worked. His arm was getting tired, and the wall behind him was still hard and the air around him was still too cool for him to pretend that there was someone else there.

Raito let out a frustrated whimper and slid down the wall until he was hunched over on the floor, mimicking L's favorite posture. He rested his cuffed hand against the door frame so that he didn't pull the chain down. He was tempted though, and the thought of L the genius, sprawled on the floor because he'd just been tugged out of bed by a horny teenager forced Raito to let out a little chuckle despite himself. With his hand propped above his head he didn't notice that the chain had slackened until L had poked his head into the doorway.

"Yagami-kun, what are you doing in the dark?"

"What does it look like," Raito snapped. It would have been obvious to anyone else, but L was generally oblivious about the way other people worked. Raito tried to imagine the detective sometimes, talking to a woman, pressed against a woman, or even a man, but always failed miserably. With L's lack of people skills it was a wonder he could cooperate with the officials at all, let alone the students he had bumped into at the university. Raito wondered what L had been like growing up and if he had ever had friends. He shut that train of thought down before it got started. It didn't matter of course, because he didn't care. L was just an ant under a magnifying glass to him. Raito just hadn't found the right angle to catch the sun with.

L eyed him with the patience he used on everything, the unnerving deduction that Raito could see as it worked behind L's eyes. "It looks like you're sitting on the bathroom floor in the dark, Yagami-kun."

Raito coughed to cover his laugh. "Yeah, that's exactly what I was doing," he murmured. "Sorry if I woke you."

L shrugged. "I had been asleep for too long anyway." He leaned against the door frame with his hands in the pockets of his jeans and looked down at Raito. Raito looked back up at him and tried to cover his erection by folding his hands in his lap.

"Would you like some help with that?" L whispered. Raito lowered his eyelids to half closed and looked away towards the tub, trying to make L think he was uneasy with the situation. It was exactly like it had been last time, except that now it wasn't the middle of the day and Misa hadn't just been straddling him in a room full of cameras and trying her very best to make him forget that last detail. L's dispassionate voice made Raito's stomach muscles clench. He felt his face go hot with anger and he was suddenly glad he hadn't turned on the light.

"Do people mean anything to you at all?" He tried to keep his voice level, but he was still hard and still crouched on the bathroom floor with his legs locking up under him. He considered it a blessing for L that he hadn't tried to kick L yet. It wouldn't be the first time for that either.

"How can you say that Yagami-kun? If people didn't mean anything to me, why would I be trying to stop Kira?" L pushed away from the door frame and walked around Raito to his other side. He slid down the wall next to him. The chain draped over Raito's lap and the cool metal on his upper thighs made him shiver. L watched him intently, the whites of his wide eyes glowed in the dim light that leaked in from the bedroom.

"Because you care for the chase. Why be a detective if you care for people?" He clenched his fists and brought his arms closer in around him. He was projecting his feelings onto someone else, and he realized this. Is this a thing Kira would have done? "People won't help you win a case. If you care for people, go be a doctor or a teacher. No, it's the game and the challenge that attract people to being detectives."

"If you know that, then why did you ask?" L leaned in closer to him and Raito could feel L's breath along his jaw line.

Raito tried to think of the answer least likely to indicate him further as Kira. "Because some people can do both. My dad does. But you don't treat anyone with enough respect."

"On the contrary, I treat everyone I meet with respect, your dad most of all. It's passion that I don't treat people with." And there it was. Raito knew L was capable of passion. He'd seen the way his toes curled around the base of the chair when they made a breakthrough, or how he closed his eyes as his mouth wrapped around a new and delectable piece of cake. Why was it that L cared so little for people? And why did Raito feel like L understood something he didn't?

"But without passion your respect means nothing. It's like erecting a tombstone in their honor. People would rather know that someone cared than know that someone respected them."

"I think that people would rather know that the world famous detective didn't become emotionally involved in his work. Your father understands that." L cocked his head. "But what about you Yagami-kun, would you rather be treated with passion? Would you rather know someone cared? You don't seem to prefer that. You tell me more than you've ever told Misa. She feels nothing but care and passion for you and you return her feelings with coldness. Which one of us is more unnatural?"

Raito felt L's fingers trace from his elbow up his arm to his hands where they curled around his fingers and lightly peeled them away from his erection. At L's first touch Raito gripped his knees with his fingers so hard that his nails dug in through the fabric of his pajama pants and he let out a hiss as if the hand had burned him. "Yagami-kun, Raito-kun," L sighed. "I'm not going to be passionate about you, but I'll always be here when you need help. We're all in this together."

"Yeah well, I'm not going to love you either," he said. His breath hitched as he got closer to finishing. "And I might not even be here for you. I'm suspected of trying to kill you, remember?"

"Yeah, it saddens L that Raito would admit to that so readily. Are you really that easy to wear down? I should get Misa some chains then." Raito could just make out the quirk of L's eyebrow in the darkness.

Raito laughed. He was always caught off guard when L said something funny, and he was usually the only one who even noticed. All of the detectives were wrapped up in more important things, and L was always so dead pan about it. L smiled a small smile and quickened the pace of his hand. Raito arched his back. He pushed his shoulders against the wall and let his feet slide on the tile so that he could lower himself to a sitting position. He unfolded and stretched out next to L on the bathroom floor as he came violently into L's hand and over his pajama pants. Cramped legs numbed pleasantly and L let go of Raito and wiped his hand on Raito's shirt.

"You want to be a detective Yagami-kun? This is another important thing to remember. Sometimes it just takes another perspective, another pair of hands to solve the problem. Even from if that perspective is that of the enemy, it can be invaluable."

L stood and shoved his hands back into his pockets. The chain ghosted back across Raito's thighs as he left and made them quake. Raito let his chin drop against his chest and tried to collect himself. He had always thought he'd had the upper hand because he didn't care. He had always thought that his dispassion and calculating nature would win over L's supposed genius. L, who was little more than an awkward boy, but now Raito began to doubt. If L was right, if Raito was Kira then he was in trouble, because L could beat him at his own game.


End file.
